


Solace in the Sea

by athousandsmiles



Series: Solace in the Sea [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 02:33:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2133813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athousandsmiles/pseuds/athousandsmiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If peace was a sound, she thinks, it would be that of the tide rolling in and out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solace in the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a challenge at onceuponaland at LJ, which was to write a fic inspired by a song. The song is "When the Stars go Blue," by Tim McGraw. This is set during "The Evil Queen," with a bit of dialogue snitched directly from "Tallahassee" at the beginning. And also, for the purposes of this fic, Hook didn't follow Gold to NYC to enact his revenge. 
> 
> I have a sneaking suspicion this may turn into a series.

Closing her eyes tight, she points at the map.

"Tallahassee," Emma says, her smile so full of joy she thinks her cheeks might crack.

"We got a winner," Neal replies, and there's more love in his eyes than she's ever seen directed at her, and that makes her smile impossibly wider.

"Is it near a beach?" she asks, but what she really means is, "Is it near the ocean?" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma's sitting on the beach, just at the point where the tide rolls in and plays tag with her toes, never quite reaching her. There's a bite in the air, but she's taken off her shoes and socks anyway, just to feel the sand sifting and shifting beneath her feet. The cold keeps Storybrooke's residents away, for which she is immensely grateful.

Aside from her brief and painful stint in Phoenix, she's always stayed in places where the ocean was not too far away. Portland, Boston, New York. She didn't have to see it all the time; she just had to know that it was there, that she could get to it easily when she needed to. Because for Emma, the endless stretch of water called to her, eased her loneliness somehow, made her feel like there was more out there, and someday she'd find whatever that "more" was. 

Out there where the sun glinted off the water like floating starlight, there was so much possibility, something comforting and terrifying at the same time lurking beneath the white caps and beyond the horizon, and Emma finds solace in it. If peace was a sound, she thinks, it would be that of the tide rolling in and out.

Of all the people she thought might find her, Hook is last on the list. But here he is, lowering himself gingerly beside her, his hook finding purchase in the sand. He's still a watercolor of bruises and lacerations. She can't help but think he should still be recuperating. She can't help but think he's still devilishly handsome, even with the injuries. 

"Shouldn't you be out… plotting revenge?" she asks, hoping to deflect from her own issues, because Hook has a way of getting under her skin like no one else ever has.

"I've been rethinking the whole vengeance thing," he says, a sheepish smile on his face she's never seen before. It's a pleasant change from all the smug smiles and winks and innuendo, though she can't deny she enjoys those too.

"Why?" 

"Revenge is an end, love, not a beginning. I've come to realize it won't make me happy or bring back anything I've lost."

"True," she says, casting her gaze back out across the water. "I'm glad to hear it. I'd hate to have to arrest you. Again."

"I thought you quite enjoyed slapping the shackles on me."

She laughs and rolls her eyes at the same time, because the way he flirts is so predictable and yet still so entertaining.

"And what brings you out here, Swan?"

"Do I need a reason?" she says, without looking at him. "Maybe I just like it here."

"That doesn't explain the troubled look in your eyes," he replies, and she can feel his stare burning into her skin like the heat of the sun. "Bit of an open book, remember?"

She tries for a casual shrug and says, "Neal's fiance, Tamara, is in town, and I don't trust her. I think she's got reasons for being here that have nothing to do with Neal. I'm just not sure what they are yet."

"Ah. Well, if you require assistance, I am at your disposal," Hook says, with an almost courtly nod of his head. 

"Really? Just like that? Not worried that my suspicions are just the product of jealousy?" She can't help the bitterness that creeps into her voice, because it hurts, it really hurts, to be assigned such petty motives by the people who should love her most in the world. 

"Swan, you're the last person I'd suspect of such motivations. If your instincts are telling you this Tamara woman is untrustworthy, then I believe you."

She looks at him then, really looks, and sees he is telling the truth. He really does believe in her, and the thought is so overwhelming she has to blink back tears. 

In his eyes, she sees a sea of possibility, of potential, endless horizons to be explored, and lurking beneath is something comforting and terrifying all at the same time.


End file.
